The 12 Basic English Tenses

When reading anything, how do we know if the events are happening in the past, present, or the possible future? In grammar, we indicate time by modifying the verbs accordingly. Let us see how this is done in Introduction to Tenses.

There are certain languages where verb tenses are not important neither do they exist but in English, tenses are very important. We will teach you how to avoid confusing tense with time and how to structure the 12 basic tenses, with examples using a regular verb, an irregular verb and the verb "be".

Tense and Time

You must not confuse the name of a verb tense with time.

It’s very important not to confuse the name of a verb tense with the how we use it to talk about time.

For example, a present tense may not always indicate the present time:

I hope it snows tomorrow.
"Snows" is a present simple tense, but it refers here to a point of time in the future(tomorrow).

Or a past tense may not always indicate time in the past:

If I had some cash now, I could buy it.
"Had" is a past simple tense but it refers here to the present point of time(now).

More about Tense and Time(link)

Basic Tenses

There are 12 tenses in active voice and 12 tenses in passive voice which equals to a total of 24 basic tenses.

For past tense and present tense, there are 2 non-complex tenses and 6 complex tenses when we use auxiliary or helping verbs.

To these, we can add 4 modal tenses when we talk about the future by using the modal-auxiliary verbs will andshall.

All of the above make a total of 12 tenses in the active voice.

We also have another 12 tenses which are available in the passive voice.

Here are some charts and examples for Basic Tenses(link)

Basic Tenses with Regular Verbs

These are the usual structures of basic tenses with regular verbs:

‍

+	Positive	Subject + Auxiliary + Main Verb
-	Negative	Subject + Auxiliary + Not + Main Verb
?	Question	Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb

These are the forms of verbs that we use to construct the tenses:

Base Form	Past Simple Form	Past Participle Form	Present Participle (-ing) Form
work	worked	worked	working

Here are some charts and examples for Basic Tenses with Regular Verbs →

Basic Tenses with Irregular Verbs

Now fundamentally the usual structure for basic tenses with irregular verbs are essentially the same as for regular verbs:

+	Positive	Subject + Auxiliary + Main Verb
-	Negative	Subject + Auxiliary + not + Main Verb
?	Question	Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb

Here are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

Base Form	Past Simple Form	Past Participle Form	Present Participle (-ing) Form
sing	sang	sung	singing

Basic Tenses with be

The verb be is always different and can have many different forms, it is truly a magical word. Fundamentally the structure of basic tenses with the irregular verb be is:

+	Positive	Subject + Auxiliary + Main Verb “be”
-	Negative	Subject + Auxiliary + not + Main Verb “be”
?	Question	Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb “be”

Although for simple past and simple present tenses, the structures are essentially not the same, they are even simpler. There is no auxiliary verb.

+	Positive	Subject + Main Verb “be”
-	Negative	Subject + Main Verb “be” + “not”
?	Question	Main Verb “be” + Subject

Now we will show you the forms of the main verb “be” that we use to construct tenses:

Base Verb	Past simple form	Past participle Form	Present participle (-ing) Form	Present Simple Form
be	was, were	been	being	am, are, is

‍

Be a Fluent English Speaker

for your office meetings, presentations, job interviews or IELTS

Live 1:1 practice, GD, Extempore & Mock Interviews under expert guidance, trusted by over 100,000+ users worldwide, loved by IIT & IAM alumni

first step is to find out all the problems in your communication skills

Book your test for Rs. 29/- only

Pricing

Best Selling

Best Selling

Super Value

Grammar